Carlton Decker was 85-years old. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War Two.
Mr. Decker died late last month after he was found outside the county-run Maplewood Manor nursing home in Ballston Spa. Police say he'd lived there for many years.
Investigators have been working for weeks to determine how he got out. And now they know.
The investigation revealed that Mr. Decker did not go out a second floor window at the nursing home as police first thought. They say he suffered from severe osteoporosis and would not have been able to drop or fall from the second floor.
They say he was wearing a monitoring bracelet on his ankle when he left his second floor room, walked down the hall, with his walker, to a locked door that required him to punch in a security code, known only to nursing home staff.
"Mr. Decker apparently knew most if not all of code numbers to punch into the panel to bypass the alarm, silence the alarm and exit that unit without any audible alarm at all," said Jim Murphy, Saratoga County District Attorney.
One of Mr. Decker's grandchildren, who is an employee of Maplewood Nursing Home, told police that her grandfather knew at least some of the security code to open the door.WNYT.com - Police: No charges in nursing home death
Sexual Assaults in Nursing Homes are unfortunately not rare. That is why every Nursing Home has a set of policies and procedures to prevent sexual assault, rape or battery of elders. They do this beacuse they are required by Federal Regulations to protect vulnerable elders from sexual assaults and abuse.
Common factors seen in Rape cases include the following:
- The victim suffered Dementia and there fore is unable to identify or remember the attack.
- The victim was isolated or left alone unsupervised.
- The attacker has done this before whether or not he/she has been apprehended.
- Often these assaults are not reported or are denied as imaginary episodes by a "mentally unstabe resident". Residents complaints are not believed.
- The facility denies responsibility and is slow to investigate.
- A person who reports the rape is not believed or is actually punished in some way by the facility.
Recently our firm was retained by the family of an 85 year old dementia patient who they believe was the victim of a sexual assault or rape. Rape is defined as the unconsented to penetration by body part or object of the sexual organs.
The facility, a Kindred Nursing Home in Massachusetts continues to deny not only that they are responsible in any way but that she was not the subject of a sexual assault. Even though she was found in the bathroom with heavy bleeding and blood clots from her vagina and also with a large bruise and swelling to her labia. The victim did not even recieve a hospital examination until the following day!
Our firm has filed suit in Superior Court for damages.
29-year-old Nurse Aid Lisah Jacobs was arrested on Monday and charged with larceny and criminal possession of drugs.
The director of the Livingston County Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, Frank Bassett, did not want to go on camera, but told News10NBC that Jacobs was an employee and is no longer. He says he's grateful for another employee who came forward with information about Jacobs.
Bassett says an employee at his facility was told by a community member that Jacobs might be pocketing pills. Bassett said his employee then did exactly what they should have, they went directly to management, who went directly to the Livingston County Sheriff's Department. And within 24 hours, sheriff's deputies arrested Jacobs.
So how does something like this happen at a place where our loved ones are supposed to be safe?
Bassett says this kind of thing can happen anywhere. He says there is an important element of trust with all of his employees. No one is standing over their shoulder all day long. Bassett says he believes Jacobs was filling out paperwork, saying patients asked for medications, when in reality, he believes, she was just taking those pills for herself.
News10NBC asked how many patients were affected. Bassett said “a few”, but doesn't have an exact number.
News10NBC spoke with an ombudsman from Lifespan. Her job is to be an adovcate for those in nursing homes.
Alana Russel, Lifespan Ombudsman Program, said, “There are systems in place in terms of supervision. It's pretty independent, adult work. I've never seen anyone on a shift by themselves, there are other co-workers, but no holding hands.”
When it comes to monitoring the safety, cleanliness, and staff at nursing homes, that is the responsibility of the New York State Department of Health. Every year, they are responsible for conducting a survey of each facility that they license.
Those surveys are done unannounced and last anywhere from three days to a week. You can access the results of those surveys anytime you want online.
Alana Russel, Lifespan Ombudsman Program, said, “There are systems in place in terms of supervision. It's pretty independent, adult work. I've never seen anyone on a shift by themselves, there are other co-workers, but no holding hands.”
When it comes to monitoring the safety, cleanliness, and staff at nursing homes, that is the responsibility of the New York State Department of Health. Every year, they are responsible for conducting a survey of each facility that they license. http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S2898919.shtml?cat=566 Protecting your loved ones living in a nursing home | www.WHEC.com
A woman is suing McDowell Nursing & Rehabilitation, LLC, after she claims it is responsible for her father’s injuries and death. Wisteria, LLC and AMFM, LLC were also named as defendants in the suit.James Allen was a patient of the defendants Nursing Home from Nov. 9, 2010, until Dec. 6, 2010, according to a complaint filed Jan. 4 in Kanawha Circuit Court.
Claudia Ross claims during Allen’s residency, he suffered serious injuries from a pattern of poor care, neglect and abuse rendered by the defendants and their staff, including uncontrolled high glucose, severe dehydration and urinary tract infections.
The negligent care and abuse of Allen by the defendants caused significant destruction on his physical condition and proximately contributed to his death on Dec. 10, 2010, according to the suit.
Ross claims the defendants failed to exercise a degree of care, skill and learning required or expected of reasonable, prudent healthcare providers in their profession.
The defendants inadequately trained their employees and were aware that their employees were unqualified and inadequately trained, yet retained them as employees to care for residents, according to the suit. http://wvrecord.com/news/257063-woman-blames-nursing-home-for-fathers-death-2
As an ombudsman for the Area Agency on Aging sees the best and the worst in Northeast Ohio’s nursing homes.
“Sometimes you see violations that are so serious that — not just as an ombudsman but as a member of the public — you look at that [and ask], ‘Why didn’t someone pay or have to face consequences for this particular activity?’ ”
Across Northeast Ohio, police and inspection reports hint at some of the most egregious actions committed in nursing homes: three sexual-assault cases in a dementia unit at a Canton facility; a 90-year-old woman beaten with a clothes hanger at a Stow facility; two elderly residents physically abused by a nurse’s aide in a Boardman facility; and pending investigations and charges throughout Ohio’s network of 956 nursing homes.
Officer Kevin Green of the Stow Police Department said he believes that officials only find out about and prosecute a small percent of the cases of abuse in facilities.
“It’s the hidden dragon,” said Green, who is the interim senior-services officer for his department. “It’s a very frustrating crime because there is an element of trust that is violated in these cases. These people and families have placed their trust in a facility, and that bond is broken when there is abuse.”Youngstown News, Facilities skirt prosecution in many elder-abuse cases:
Chester Rusek believed his roommate in a Town of Tonawanda nursing home was stealing from him.
So on a recent Monday morning, Rusek retaliated and repeatedly beat the 86-year-old roommate, Salvatore Trusello, with a 2½-pound magnet as Trusello lay in his bed in Kenwell-DePaul Senior Living Community on Delaware Avenue, police said.
Then, Rusek, 87, who gets around with the use of a walker, shuffled down the hallway and told the attendant to get help.
“He’s going to need medical attention,” Rusek told the attendant, according to police reports. “I just beat his [expletive].”
“I didn’t want to kill him,” Rusek later told police. “I just wanted to get even.”
Rusek was arrested for the Nov. 26 attack and charged with assault on the nursing home resident and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, said Town of Tonawanda Detective Lt. Joseph Carosi.Nursing home resident accused of beating roommate - City & Region - The Buffalo News:
A Wonewoc woman charged in June with abuse of a patient at a New Lisbon nursing home demanded a preliminary hearing in Juneau County Circuit Court on Thursday.
Judge John Roemer scheduled the hearing Jan. 22 for 50-year-old Ginger S. Newlun.
At a preliminary hearing, a judge determines whether a nursing home crime was committed and whether evidence exists to show the accused may have committed the crime.
District Attorney Scott Southworth said he planned to call a single witness in the case.
Newlun faces felony counts of abuse of a nursing home patient and aggravated battery for alleged incidents at Crest View Nursing Home in New Lisbon.Hearing set for woman accused of abusing nursing home patient:
A Bronx nursing home worker has been indicted after the worker was allegedly caught sexually assaulting an elderly woman with Alzheimer's disease, authorities said.
A non-clinical staff member at Hudson Pointe at Riverdale was naked in a laundry closet with the woman, who is in her 80s, when a co-worker opened the closet, nursing home officials said.
The co-worker reported it to authorities. The worker accused of sexual abuse, who had been working at Hudson Pointe for 12 years, has been indicted and is due back in court Jan. 18. It's not clear if there are other victims.Bronx Nursing Home Worker Accused of Sex Abuse | NBC New York:
A Maryland nursing home is accused of deadly neglect. St. Thomas More in Hyattsville has an extensive history of health and safety violations. Tonight state health officials are blaming poor medical care for a patient's death. One state health official told Fox5 patients at St. Thomas More are at higher risk than at other nursing homes because of the ongoing deficiencies.
A former patient at St. Thomas More claims he almost died. James Franklin remains weak and bed ridden, six months after his stay at the 230-bed facility for what should have been the road to recovery. "I mean I didn't have no idea that I would still be here in the hospital. And for me to be in the hospital has been a tragic chance for me," Franklin told FOX5 from his hospital bed.FOX 5 Investigates: Maryland nursing home accused of neglect - DC Breaking Local News Weather Sports FOX 5 WTTG:
The state Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a group of nursing home patients can sue Covenant Care for allegedly violating California nurse-staffing standards, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Covenant Care owns 16 nursing homes in Alameda County.
State standards require long-term skilled-nursing facilities to provide each patient with 3.2 hours of nursing care per day.
The nursing home patients filed a lawsuit against Covenant alleging that it violated state standards at least 35% of the time over a four-year period, beginning in December 2006.State Supreme Court Allows Patients To Sue Nursing Home Owner - California Healthline:
Until he died last month at age 82, Don Esco of Cameron Park had his own way of measuring the passage of time: by the years, months and days since the nursing home death of his wife, Johnnie, after a short stay at a Placerville nursing home.
It was never enough, he always said, to settle a civil lawsuit with the El Dorado Care Center in Placerville, which he blamed for his 77-year-old wife's death in March 2008. No, he said, it was never about the money.
Johnnie's death, he maintained, was a nursing home criminal matter – and the state of California agreed.
On Thursday – four years, seven months and 24 days after Johnnie Esco died – one of two nurses charged with criminal elder abuse in connection with her death pleaded no contest to the charge.California attorney general's office to ramp up elder-abuse investigations - Capitol and California - The Sacramento Bee:
A supervisor at a Carmichael nursing home admitted under oath that she was ordered to alter the medical records of a 92-year-old patient, who died after developing massive, rotting bedsores at the facility.
In Santa Monica, a nursing home was fined $2,500 by the state for falsifying a resident's medical chart, which claimed that the patient was given physical therapy five days a week. The catch? At least 28 of those sessions were documented by nurse assistants who were not at work on those days.
In Los Angeles, lawyers for a woman severely re-injured at a nursing home discovered a string of false entries – several written by nonexistent nurses.
Phantom nurses. Suspicious entries in medical charts. Phony paperwork, hurriedly produced after an injury or death.
It is the untold story of nursing home care: falsification of patient records.
While regulators have dogged facilities for years over fraudulent Medicare documentation, the issue of bogus records is more than a money matter. In California and elsewhere, nursing homes have been caught altering entries and outright lying on residents' medical charts – sometimes with disastrous human consequences, according to a Bee investigation.
